thanks for the reply...

what you said is true... alot of these source packages recommend using GNU's make.

but the problem is still there after I installed the latest make build.

someone mentioned something about "as"...

I am totally new at this so please bear with me if I sound like an idiot... but are there any issues with make and the solaris version of "as"?

this is really bogging me down... 'cause I can't compile many sources...